The writer-director behind "Safety Not Guaranteed" has found himself in the middle of "Episode VII" speculation, which has provided some very surreal moments.

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There is no detail too small to escape the obsessive stare of Star Wars fans, and since Lucasfilm announced that it would be taking the series out of carbonite and creating three new sequels, devotees of The Force have been parsing out any news update and interview quote midi-chlorian by midi-chlorian, hoping for any hints about the upcoming films.

It all has led to some surreal moments for Safety Not Guaranteed director Colin Trevorrow, a lifelong Star Wars fanatic who found himself at the center of speculation when a blog resurfaced comments he made about hoping to direct a new chapter in a film franchise with a built-in fan base.

"It’s not going to be me for Episode VII, and I can’t believe I’ve actually had to come out and say that," Trevorrow told The Hollywood Reporter at the IFP Gotham Awards on Monday. "That was the most shocking thing, like around the dinner table when I was 8, I had to assure everyone that it wasn’t me, but now actually for real. But there are a lot of things that have come up that are a lot of exciting opportunities that have come up because of [Safety]."

Lucasfilm already has announced the three screenwriters for the three films (Michael Arndt, Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg), though no directors have been set. If a fan really wanted to parse Trevorrow's statements, he only said he wouldn't be directing the first film of the bunch, leaving the next two technically up in the air. He wasn't keen to talk about the series any further.

But the writer-director, whose debut film about a would-be time traveler stars Mark Duplass,Aubrey Plaza and Jake Johnson, has been exploring many options, both in writing his own features to direct and taking on someone else's screenplay. Safety, Trevorrow said, has led to conversations with many filmmakers that have nothing to do with Luke, Leia and Han.

"More than project-specific, I’ll get an opportunity to meet people that I really respect," he said. "And it’s really casual and it’s about them being admirers of the film, and to me that’s the most comfortable. I can talk about my family and how hard it is to live outside of Los Angeles and be a director. I’ve got a lot of questions, and a lot of them are a little more personal, and so I’m trying to pick people’s brains about that -- how to navigate that and deal with it. So it’s been a real privilege to have conversations with people I’ve admired for a long time."